The kind of petty slagging that is going on is completely ridiculous and unnecessary. It is the opposite of what a site like this should be hoping, and was, achieving. I know for a fact that it is out-of-character of white devil, sam and The O, but I also understand as a student attending the School why it must be done. I do however call for a 'cease fire' as it were, between ex and current pupils. These claims of 'indocrination' are un-founded, and for those who have said it, to be honest I don't think you yourselves believe it either. What we should be doing at this stage instead of trying to nit-pick eachothers arguments to find faults or the like, is to be joining together to get the truth out of the governers, the staff, whoever you feel should be put in the spot light. I have had no experience of abuse, therefore I have no grounds to speak upon the matter, but my mother is a very well established psychotherapist and I completely understand where the angry ex-pupils are coming from. The first step has been taken, the report has been an apparent success, and now it is up to any one who feels this is not enough to unite and take some action.

Basically what I wanted to say is enough with the hand-bags, put them down, and everyone should work in a pro-active way to find the truth. Peace out

Jerome. This isn't just about truth. This is about revenge. I also think that St James is accountable but I get wound up when I see both sides overemphasising their innocence. A lot of the ex pupils are just trying to get revenge no matter what their exterior mannerisms and attitudes seem to be like and I feel that the school is infact still trying to brush it all under the carpet. Surely as an ex Old Boys chairman you could exert some suggestion that Debenham, Lacy and Russell make some sort of statement or apology. As you note and so many people have stated a lot could be achieved with some real responsibility being accepted by the school instead of going with the idea that ND only caned on the bare arse once and only one board duster was thrown. That the school defend these facts as facts is so obviously absurd to a group of people that quite easilly rememberthey did get caned on the bare arse and quite easilly do remember quite a lot more than one board duster being thrown. The fact is the school isn't being honest but then again nor are all of the ex pupils. In my view a lot of them are exagerating and kind of masturbating each other's sense of injustice.

Jerome, I started a thread to find a reconciliation between current and ex-pupils yesterday, entitled 'towards a resolution....'. I put some propositions forward at the beginning, but as yet have had no response to them from current pupils. I am happy to hear their comments, whether they agree with the propositions or not. All I ask is that comments, by pupils old and new, are rational and considered!

I'd read it that Zathura is trying to wind up the current pupils into thinking we're out for revenge and the ex-pupils by slagging us off. Divide and conquer, muddy the waters and prevent any kind of sensible discussion. Z has valid points about both 'sides' (the school is overstating it's innocence and there have been posts in the past that demanded that the schools were shut) but is actively and deliberately creating further division. Which is odd because s/he seems to agree with both sides that the schools were culpable and need to address this with positive action.

Personally I'm happy that the schools are changing, and I have no desire to harm the current pupils. I'd love to know why the current pupils have avoided putting 'considered comments' on the thread started by Nilabm. So far just one daft one from Sam which didn't add anything useful.

Well said Jerome. The existing students at the school can only speak of their experiences. The ex-pupils have every right to be angry. I personally feel that further investigation is probably neccessary to understand completely, what went on, so that, these ex-pupils can finally get on with their lives.

The new st.james is a very productive school that looks to educate and develop students characters. Yeah we have fitness training as a punishment, but generally people prefer this to detention. I know i do. Although the school isn't perfect, such a thing doesn't exist. Definately room for improvement though.

(Thanks to the school i'm rubbish at English, so i'm not sure if my commas are correct.)

Are the fitness training punishments with Hipshon by any chance, or is he too old these days? Remember doing several hundred press-ups, tuck-jumps, sit-ups, etc. quite regularly. We had to do a couple of circuits for every day we were late.... I was late about 5 days a week!

LOL

N.

PS Used to do cross-country with him at least once a week - and that on top of games. It was a bugger having him as form master for three years.. Oh, and do you still start every day with circuit training like we used to? Just curious.....

Ok, I am sure that revenge makes the aimed action worse off? Am I wrong? Maybe I am, someone please tell me. If you had said that you intended to seek closure or penance from St James, the governors or the SES about their wrongdoings in the past then that yould be perfectly ok. What I am trying to establish is if by trying to get revenge on the school what you are hoping to achieve. I think your definition of revenge would be greatly appreciated.
Peace

Oh, and St James pupil, I'm not trying to be rude, but plenty of pupils have gone through St James learning how to punctuate properly, what makes you any different? OH! now I remember... you took a year off.
KISSES

One more thing, fitness club is after school, not early in the morning, it is designed to make you fit, and if anyone really cannot do it, most people can as it's been toned down so much, you can be excused to do a normal detention or serve another punishment. I prefer fitness club to detention because not only is it shorter, but is productive, in detention the time is usually spent idly, this in case you hadn't noticed is a benefit. Hipshon doesn't even take games anymore let alone running! He's still a god teacher though, he's never been nasty to me, although I have heard stories and do STRONGLY sympathise with you on that part. Our circuit training is only for those bad mothers that pass the 3 warning stage in a lesson, i.e. If you're warned 3 times by the same teacher in one lesson. The school has become a lot more dummed down since your day, lol
Peace

Fitness is taken by sixth form member generally. I think it goes 4x: 20 push-ups, 40 sit ups, 40 star jumps and 40 squats. The circuits is only for people who are naughty,lol. There's some yellow card red card plan introduced by Mr.Boddy. Basically a red card means fitness training. Mr.Hipshon doesn't do fitness well too old now i think, but I also had him for cross-country. O yh, got told off for that the other day, he's Dr.Hipshon now.

Revenge is something that you appear to be out to get. Not sure why. Not sure who you want to exact your revenge from.

If you want to make a positive contribution to this board why don't you tell everyone what you think ought to be done and by whom. Nilsabm started a thread asking everyone for their considered views. So far no current pupil has made any positive suggestions.

As far as I can tell, many members of the board were mentally and physically abused by their school and would like an apology from those culpable (the teachers and the govenors) as well as a resignation by those who did the abusing.

How on earth is this revenge?

I think one of the problems is that people here who were not abused are simply minimizing it. Oh, it wasn't that bad. Well, it was that bad, and even if you don't think it was, it was criminal.

Someone who has had a crime perpetrated on them and wishes the criminal prosecuted or punished is NOT out for revenge.

This is the same as any other criminal case - abuse, molestation, rape, theft, but the fact that it was perpetrated by people the current members know as good people somehow makes it unable to get it through their heads that despite this, those "good" people committed a crime and should do what their society has decided fits it (the laws are fairly clear) even if some statute of limitations has been "passed".

My ex-boyfriend's sister was repeatedly molested and raped by their older brother as a child but she never told anyone until he tried it again when she was 17. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations had passed and all he got some some classes. Does that make it OK? Should he have been punished anyway? Yes. And had he been any kind of honerable person, he would have admitted that what he did was wrong and do the right thing. Same thing goes here.